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MONTREAL – Félix Auger-Aliassime probably hadn’t counted on pouring rain, during his first day back from the Paris Olympics.
He has a short time-frame to make the quick adjustment from red clay to hard courts. And a 1 p.m. practice on the Roger Court Monday was pushed back.
There was a half-hour slot available on a smaller court. The problem problem was … rain.
If there’s anything tennis players hate, it’s letting a court go to waste – even in the rain. Maybe they can’t take a chance to try to run and move. But there are plenty of things you can still do.
Just watch Auger-Aliassime go:
Auger-Aliassime walked onto court to a nice round of applause from his people, who were all congratulating him on winning the bronze medal in mixed doubles at the Olympics.
He got congratulations from the players on the court, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Arthur Fils. And their teams.
He managed to at least get a little loose. He didn’t leave Paris until Sunday and flight delays meant he didn’t get home until midnight.
Not much time to move, recuperate, adjust to the new courts and get ready for the additional effort and pressure of playing at home.
Auger-Aliassime and his lifelong pal Alexis Galarneau will play doubles on Tuesday.
After the practice, Auger-Aliassime signed and selfied and accepted congratulations and made a lot of peoples’ days. All in the pouring rain. No one cared.
Here are a few more pics.
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Tks for that video of Felix loosing up. It brought a smile to my face remembering how, as a teenager, at the first drop of rain we would put our wooden racquets with catgut strings under our Tshirts, so that they would not be ruined. Then, as soon as we got home, we put them in our wooden presses so they wouldn’t warp.
ha ha
That does bring back memories. I still have a wooden racquet in a press somewhere around here.